Drawbridge: Mobile Gaming Habits Change When School Year Starts

Drawbridge revealed the iOS and Android apps that saw the most use and engagement during the third quarter of 2016.

Drawbridge, a cross-device identity solution, analyzed 2.8 trillion in-application ad requests from July 1 through Sept. 30, as well as daily and monthly data from its Connected Consumer Graph, to discover which iOS and Android apps saw the most use and engagement during the third quarter of 2016.

Drawbridge found, in part, that the beginning of the school year had a noticeable effect on mobile gaming habits.

Specifically, in July, Drawbridge said users were more likely to play mobile games on both iOS and Android during the week than on weekends. However, in August and September, users were more likely to play mobile games on weekends. Drawbridge said the start of the school year is one potential cause for this shift, as students have less time to play games during the week.

When looking at all apps and games, Drawbridge said the top iOS app in July and August was iFunny, while Words With Friends took the top spot in September.

On Android, Clean Master (Boost & AppLock) was the top app in July, August and September.

Brian Ferrario, vice president of marketing at Drawbridge, told SocialTimes:

Apps capture the vast majority of our mobile time, yet the average consumer only downloads two apps per month. This report—now the fifth quarterly report that we’ve put out—is an alternative point of view to the “most downloaded” lists that we’ve all seen, and it tells us which apps are actually being used after the download.

This past quarter, we observed an interesting trend where users were more likely to play mobile gaming apps on the weekends as opposed to during the week once August arrived. This supports the idea that seasonality has a big impact on mobile behaviors, as people travel less, head back to school and get in their normal work routines.